Did you know that chronic pain relief could be as simple as balancing opposing muscles? Muscle balancing can help you find back pain relief, carpal tunnel relief and relieve other chronic pain conditions.

I use this simple concept in my massage business and on myself when I'm experiencing muscle pain. It works so well that I've taught family and friends about it and they use the technique to to heal their painful conditions.

The human body contains 639 muscles. These muscles are divided into two categories. There are smooth muscles which control bodily functions like breathing and digestion and skeletal muscles that move your body around. Skeletal muscles are our main concern when talking about muscular pain.

Muscles work together to preform tasks. Muscles also oppose each other so we can perform certain movements. The work of opposing muscles is easiest to see at joints. Let's use the arm as an example.

The biceps on the front of your upper arm are used to bend your elbow. The triceps on the back of your upper arm are used to straighten the elbow. So the biceps and triceps are opposing muscles.

In groups of opposing muscles, often times one group of muscles is stronger than the other. Let's look at your hand as an example. Rest your hand on the table with the palm facing up. Just let your hand relax. What do the fingers do? They're curled up, aren't they? That's because your forearm flexors, which are used to bend or flex the wrist and fingers, are stronger then your forearm extenors, which are used to extend the wrist and straight the fingers.

Don't worry. That's normal. Everyone's fingers curl when they're hands are relaxed. If the forearm flexors become too tight it can cause a problem. We'll get to that later though.

Many people are currently searching for back pain relief. I've experienced back pain and I know how horrible it can be. Whether your pain is in the upper, mid or lower back it can make it painful to do most activities. The back is made up of so many structures and is active during all of our movements. This makes a back injury particularly frustrating.

Back pain can come from a number of different sources. Let's look at upper back pain first.

Upper Back Pain

Upper back pain can be caused by an imbalance of opposing muscles. The muscles in your upper back work to hold you up straight. They are opposed by the muscles in your chest. As you move around during the day you work your chest muscles quite a bit. Many people also tend to slouch causing the chest muscles to contract even more. Tight chest muscles pull your shoulders forward rounding your back and stretching out your upper back muscles. The stretched out upper back muscles start to ache. Find out how to self-massage can give you back pain relief.

Low Back Pain

Pain in your low back can be caused by any number of things. A common problem that I see in my clients is low back pain caused by tight thigh muscles. The muscles at the front of your thighs is another group of muscles that's quite active during the day. Over time they can get tight. When they tighten they pull on the pelvis causing it to tilt downward. The downward tilt in the pelvis compresses the low back causing pain. You can use self-massage to ease this form of low back pain.

These examples aren't the only causes of back pain. There are many others.

is caused by the entrapment of the median nerve in a structure in the wrist called the carpal tunnel. Did you know that imbalance in opposing muscles of the wrist can aggravate the problem?

Not too long ago we looked at how your forearm extensors are weaker than your forearm flexors. If your forearm flexors get too strong from being over worked, they can cause the median nerve to be entrapped in the tight muscle tissue even more. Some simple massage and stretching and strengthening exercises can help release the entrapped nerve. Combining these two things with some simple changes in the way you perform everyday tasks can cure your carpal tunnel syndrome all together.

I hope this knowledge of opposing muscles and muscle balancing helps you wipe out your chonic pain.